The present invention relates to a surgical implant for attachment of soft tissue to bone, an insertion tool for anchoring suture anchors to bone, and a method for anchoring a suture anchor to bone.
It is often necessary to attach soft tissue to bone, for example, to attach ligament tissue to bone tissue. Loss of integrity in bone tissue, for example, a ligament of a human rotator cuff, as well as recurrent dislocation of the shoulder, may result in abnormal kinematics of the shoulder. This may cause progressive weakness of the shoulder and, in some circumstances, severe dysfunction of the shoulder and progressive degenerative joint changes. Accordingly, procedures have been developed to repair, for example, the rotator cuff, to prevent debilitating loss of function and to restore more physiologic biomechanics. However, these conventional procedures may require invasive surgical procedures, which may lead to increased complications and increased morbidity.
Many of the early suture anchors were operable to be screwed into the bone. However, to properly secure such an anchor, the bone had to be first prepared by a separate tapping step (i.e., a pre-drilling step). In an effort to eliminate the initial tapping step, push-in type anchors were developed. The effectiveness of push-in type anchors may be measured by their ability to reliably set in all bone types, the size of the anchor, and the effectiveness of insertion tools for protecting suture threads while inserting the anchors into bone.
With respect to push-in type suture anchors, the insertion tool, the suture implant, and the method of insertion should act to consistently and reliably set the implant in a variety of bone types. For this purpose, the implant should be designed as small as possible to limit the amount of foreign substance in the body, and should have features configured to consistently set the anchor into bone.
Due to the limitations of the conventional suture anchors, delivery instruments, and methods described above, a need exists for a simple, strong, and reliable suture anchor, as well as a technique for fixating suture to bone.
Furthermore, a need exists for a push-in type suture anchor and delivery instrument that protects the sutures during insertion of the anchor into bone.
Effective tissue anchors require a contradictory combination of small size for ease of delivery and large size for substantial tissue purchase.
Other applications for tissue anchors include manipulating or retracting tissues and anatomical or other structures within the body of human or animal subjects for the purpose of treating diseases or disorders. One example of a condition where it is desirable to lift, compress or otherwise remove a pathologically enlarged tissue is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).
The present disclosure addresses these and other needs.